Moving and Shaking

I mentioned in Ellie's six-month letter that she really seems like she wants to move these days. Well, when the girl puts her mind to something, she really works at it. No, she's not crawling yet, don't get excited (or, you know, filled with fear, if you happen to be a dog who lives in our home who has captured the unrelenting attention of the baby in question). But she has made significant motor skill improvements just in the last three weeks, so my "please-don't-make-me-baby-proof-this-apartment-that-we're-moving-out-of-anyway" self reluctantly acknowledges that it can't be too far off. (Cue the visions of the baby crawling head first at high speed into a stack of heavy moving boxes. Yay! Something new to worry about!)

Ellie has been sitting up very well unassisted for some time now, and started doing a little backwards-scootch thing while seated during my mom's visit. Then, she started leaning forwards on her hands, mostly to look at her books. She would usually get a little too enthusiastic about this move and end up in a face plant, which would quickly turn into a temper tantrum. (I get it. I don't like slamming my face into things, either.)

Leaning forward to get a closer look at her Pooh Bear book

She also started scooting and rolling herself around to get at things she wants, much to Achilles' chagrin. Oh! And hey! Guess who finally figured out how to roll over BOTH WAYS?! It's an October miracle. Literally, the very day I posted her six-month letter bemoaning the fact that she STILL COULD NOT ROLL OVER, she rolled over. Awesome, she's already out to prove me wrong. She is her father's daughter.

She's coming for you, Achilles.

Come here, you dog!

Then the leaning forward on her hands thing was soon accompanied by a little air space between her rear end and the floor.

Getting a closer look at Darren Criss. Her love for him remains as strong as ever.

This baby is ready to GO.

And then she started doing this move, trying to get up on her feet:

Is it possible she's doing yoga?

Upwardly mobile

And then she quickly mastered how to get up on her hands and knees. This baby has officially assumed the crawling position.

Well now. This can't end well, can it?

So that's where we stand now. She's up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Friends with babies: please tell me that does not necessarily mean that crawling is imminent. My mind seriously cannot even fathom trying to baby-proof our already overstuffed, soon-to-be-filled-with-moving-boxes-and-in-a-constant-state-of-disarray apartment. But, given the immense progress she has made in just about three weeks, I feel like I'm watching my dreams of her holding off on this crawling thing until we get to Florida drift away. Sigh.

Ellie has also been working on getting herself to a sitting position, although she has been trying to keep that one a secret. I first realized it was happening when I heard her crying in the room during a nap. When I went in to check on her, there she was, sitting in the corner staring back at me. Say what?!

A reenactment of the scene that greeted me during that nap

Check me out, Mom!

She continued to practice this skill in stealth mode for a couple of days. For instance, on Saturday Eric and I were hanging out with her and watching the Gator game while she played on her mat (laying on her belly). The Gators scored a touchdown (obviously), we cheered, we looked back down at the baby, and she was upright. Just that fast! I did finally catch her in the act yesterday, and I managed to capture it on video. If you're interested, you can watch it here. (It's a little longer than it needs to be, because she's super cute, but the sitting up happens at the very end.)

Now, she continues to practice this sitting up skill at inopportune times. Read: sleeping times. Last night we put her down for the night as usual, and an hour later heard her crying. This is rather strange, so we went to investigate. Yup, sitting up. Same story at nap time today. Somehow all that face plant practice was for naught and when she sits up during a sleep time, she can't remember how to get herself back down. Crazy baby.

So here we are, on the precipice of having a moving baby. Any words of advice, friends? I should have known from those days of this little one constantly kicking and rolling in my belly that she would be ready to move in no time! Oh, how quickly the days have passed. Slow down, little baby!